Once upon a time, there was the media, and there was an upcoming Presidential election in the United States. The incumbent president was finishing his second term, so both parties sought to determine his successor.For the most part, what followed was a normal field of candidates, with the exception of one very low energy religious fundamentalist black guy who had never held a political office before.But then, out of nowhere, came this 70 year old billionaire guy with a toupee, orange skin, and frog lips. He promised to build a great wall along the US-Mexico border and to deport anyone who had entered this country illegally, along with other things.Whenever journalists across the country heard this, they determined that they would decide what kind of political rhetoric was and wasn't okay, and they decided that the things he was saying were far too conservative for their tastes.So what did they do next? They began a 24-hour smear campaign, which they hoped would be sufficient to sink this insolent right-winger guy who dared defy the progressive political establishment.However, this plan of theirs backfired. Had they simply not afforded much news coverage to this guy, his campaign might not have gained traction. Instead, they provided him with tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or possibly even billions of dollars worth of free airtime. They plastered his name everywhere, so that every person who might've voted for him knew all about Donald Trump, and on November 8, 2016, the American people elected him POTUS.